Essence of humanity
Out one ear and in another? A cat sits upon my desk, purposely planting himself on my psychology notes. Developmental psychology to be precise. This study of how humans develop over time, and as intriguing as it is, it makes me wonder – as alike as we all are, and as different as we all are – this oxymoron that sums up human existence – why the hell do we still treat each other like crap?
Now, I understand the answer to this question with my logical mind, but my heart will never understand. Some people have been ingrained with prejudices, and our country is riddled with various ones. Despite much effort to eliminate them, they still persist. Racism for instance. Is that fully extinguished? No. There is much evidence of it amongst various groups in the states, as well as some prejudices one encounters randomly. Many have died because of racial hatred against them. How about sexism? The same fate really. It still exists, and there’s still work to be done. How about homophobia and transphobia? It very much exists, and only recently has people been actively trying to educate and deal with these issues – especially transphobia. In 1995, a woman died because paramedics refused to treat her – why? Because she was trans. Others have been murdered or tortured for being gay or trans. Does this still happen? Yes. Violence against others due to race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation – all of this still happens, but the point here is that it shouldn’t happen at all.
No one should live in fear of their own lives regardless of their race, ethnicity, sex, gender, orientation, or even religion. We are all human – we are all people, and we all deserve respect, dignity, and a sense of safety.
How does one stop such things?
By talking about these issues. By educating people. Don’t ignore it, for then it’ll never go away, and instead will become far worse.
I wrote this post, not to induce huge arguments about whether or not such violence and discriminations still exist – at this point, we’d be deluding ourselves if we thought that our country is devoid of discrimination. I wrote this as a future awareness and to hopefully induce discussion on how to deal with these issues and stop violence against our fellow people – regardless of country, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, orientation, religion. Is it idealistic of me to think that someday we may live without discrimination? Perhaps, but at the very least, through education, advocacy, and being honest and kind to one another, we can at least lessen it enough that people can feel some degree of safety.
To Conquer a Mountain 